


Partners

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 17:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5136218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate ending to the KageHina fight from episode 5 of season 2, which had pretty much the entire fandom screaming and burning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partners

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://lazy-afternooner.tumblr.com/post/132404944276/mend).

“If this quick doesn’t work, there’s no point in me being on the court!”

Tobio’s frown turns into a scowl, a hostile glare, and he bares his teeth in sheer frustration. Shouyou’s determined expression doesn’t waver; he’s dead set on getting his point across, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious to him that it won’t happen. He and Tobio are on two completely different levels when it comes to this thing.

Shouyou wants to change, to evolve, get better. Tobio wants him to stay in place and work on the things he already knows so well. But does that actually make him stronger, in the end? He wants to _both_ improve on the quick attack, but also to learn new things in order to beat their opponents, to reach the spring tournament they’ve been working towards all these months.

“That’s why I keep telling you your will isn’t needed for this to work! I’ll keep throwing you tosses that won’t get blocked by opponents!”

“But then I’ll never get better!”

Shouyou’s voice echoes in the gym, bounces off the walls and out the door where his upperclassmen will soon enough hear them and come to stop their impending fight. He sees Hitoka in the corner of his eye, and she’s scared, doesn’t know what to do. Shouyou doesn’t know what to do, either.

“You don’t have _time_ to do this kind of crap,” Tobio spits out. “The spring tournament’s right around the corner. It’s better to stick with what we already have and what we already _can_ do, rather than to use something that might not even _work_ in the end. Don’t you get that?!”

He’s grabbed Shouyou by the front of his shirt, lifted him off the floor. Shouyou grabs the wrist that holds him up, and glares back, still very much intent on getting his point across, getting Tobio to understand him.

“I want to be strong enough to compete by myself.”

Tobio feels like something might’ve just snapped within him, his rage levels rising higher, and he didn’t even think that was possible. “Your selfishness is what’s going to break the team balance, you know that, right?!”

In his blind fit of rage, Tobio throws Shouyou onto the floor, Shouyou sliding on his back, and then they just glare at each other in silence. Shouyou barely hears Hitoka’s poor attempts at trying to get them to stop fighting in the background. All he hears is his own pulse loudly beating in his ears, like a ticking bomb, ready to explode at a moment’s notice.

He doesn’t _get_ to explode, however, because Tanaka comes in to interrupt them just as they’ve started shoving each other around, and their screaming has reached unacceptable standards for a gym in which a volleyball game _isn’t_ going on.

* * *

With a band-aid decorating his cheek, Shouyou trudges out of the gym, where he and Tobio had gotten scolded quite badly, before Tobio disappeared off to who knows where. He says goodbye to Hitoka who’s headed for the bus stop, and then he shoves his hands into his pockets and begins to walk away from the building.

He doesn’t get very far until a certain someone bikes up right in front of him, and stops. A mop of black hair, and what almost looks like a pout greets Shouyou as he bothers to finally look up from the ground and his shoelaces.

“Hop on,” Tobio mutters, his gaze fixed elsewhere. “I’ll take you home.”

Of course, Shouyou doesn’t reject the offer. He gets up behind Tobio, and hesitantly puts his arms around the other’s middle. He keeps a rather loose embrace, because they _did_ just have a fight, and he doesn’t know where that left them, where they stand now. Tobio, however, brings a hand back to pull one of Shouyou’s arms closer to the other, ever so slightly tightening that hold around Tobio’s waist. He takes the hint, and readjusts.

The bike ride back to Shouyou’s house is spent in silence. The orange and pink sky above them is beautiful, and Shouyou finds himself blatantly staring up at it, not paying attention to what’s going on in front of him. Because sooner than he expected, Tobio stops, and they’re right outside Shouyou’s house.

Tentatively, Shouyou gets off the bike. He feels like he should say something, but _what_ would he say? He doesn’t really regret what he said, because he means it. He _does_ want to get better, and he _doesn’t_ want to stand still in the same spot even if that would ensure them victories. He wants to grow, to be able to rely on his own power a little more than just having to expect Tobio’s tosses to him lead them to victory.

But before Shouyou has a chance to speak up, Tobio does.

“I’m sorry”, he mumbles. “For throwing you. And yelling at you. But I’m not sorry for what I said. I still think you’re selfish for wanting to be independent when you’re on a team.”

Shouyou sighs. “It’s not like that. I just want to become stronger, so I can earn the right to be there. Right now, I’m only on the court thanks to you. If you wouldn’t toss to me, then we wouldn’t be here.”

A hand grabs the front of his shirt, and Shouyou expects a repeat performance of what happened in the gym not even an hour earlier. But when a set of lips crash against his own, he finds himself beyond surprised, so surprised that he opens his eyes as a result. In doing so, he sees Tobio’s eyes squeezed shut, and the frown he has on his face. It’s kind of cute, Shouyou thinks.

Tobio pulls apart, and Shouyou wishes the kiss had lasted longer. “Idiot,” Tobio says. “You should think better of yourself.”

Still a little dazed and taken aback, Shouyou blinks a few times to come back to his senses. “I—er, maybe. Yeah, I’ll try. Also, I'm sorry, too, Kageyama.”

“'S fine,” Tobio says, clearly embarrassed. “I get it. Sort of, I think.”

Silence falls again, and Shouyou wonders if they're really on at least okay terms now. If they can go back to normal tomorrow, act like this never happened. Or at least say they got past it, put it behind them.

“Hey, Kageyama... I'll keep doing what I've done up until now. Just... while also trying to get better on other things. Because I want to, and I  _have_ to.”

“Fine. I’ll help you to at least try and achieve whatever dumb things you want to do, but you still have to do the quick attack with me. It’s the only thing we know works for now.”

“Okay,” Shouyou replies, and he smiles a little. “Fair enough.”

“Good. We’re… partners, after all.”

Shouyou’s eyes widen at that, but then his smile grows wider. _Partners_. That’s a good way to put their current relationship; having gone from bitter rivals to team mates in a year.

“Yeah,” he says, and he feels a little lighter inside.

Tobio leaves not too long after that, and when Shouyou walks inside his house, he just _knows_ he won’t be able to hide his very blatant emotions. At least his current state is better than it was before they left the gym, and maybe it’ll be easier to deal with his prying mother like this.

Well, at least he hopes so.


End file.
